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Talk:Action Comics Vol 1 47
Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story. I.R.T."For simplicity's sake it will be assumed a similar story occurred on Earth-Two but the actual story happened on Earth-Two-A.": If they both happened, then how is one of them the "actual story"? The Earth-Two story is referenced in All-Star Squadron Vol 1 20, so it's as "actual" as any other Earth-Two story. Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 01:04, September 12, 2017 (UTC) : I think the author means "the story as actually published in Action #47 (with bald Luthor) happened on Earth-Two-A". The whole thing is absurd on many levels. In the 1970s and early 1980s, before vast quantities of Golden Age reprints were available, comic readers and writers noticed that the earliest DC stories had significant differences from modern ones: Luthor had hair, Batman used a gun, Superman could not fly. So they assumed that these things were characteristic of the entire Golden Age, and declared that on Earth-Two, Superman could not fly, Luthor had hair, etc. However, this contradicted another claim: all the Golden Age stories, from 1938 until at least the final 1940s issue of All-Star Comics, took place on Earth-Two. : : If we accept this Earth-Two-A nonsense, then DC stories from 1938 until around 1940 took place on Earth-Two, and everything from 1940 until the early 1950s took place on Earth-Two-A -- which is absurd. And as you said, it contradicts everything Roy Thomas wrote. 03:21, September 13, 2017 (UTC) ::So that means we can actually challenge this nonsensical template and prevent it from spreading misinformation? - S.S. (talk) 04:49, September 13, 2017 (UTC) I actually agree with BG's main point, that the Metropolis Planet Superman and the Cleveland Star Superman existed on parallel worlds. The Superman stories published in Action Comics #s 1 ~ 15 were set in the C.S.Superman's universe, and subsequent Superman stories were set on Earth-Two. But that could be covered with a simple footnote, added to those 15 pages. I disagree that one story is more actual than another. But I don't disagree with the Earth-Two-A concept. That template seems to me to need some rephrasing, though. And I now belatedly notice that Action Comics #47 takes place well after Action Comics #16, which is where Metropolis is called "Metropolis" for the first time. So this issue's Superman story should still take place on Earth-Two. Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 09:45, September 13, 2017 (UTC) : SDD, I don't think reversing the Earth-numbering helps matters. Yes, there were differences in detail between Action 1-15 and Action #47. According to this template, "Earth-Two" is reserved for the very earliest Superman stories, not those after Action #16. You would use "Earth-Two" for the later stories, but not Action 1-15. : But I think this whole thing is unnecessary. : We usually refer to the entire Silver and Bronze Age as "Earth-One". But in 1969, Robin graduated high school, which means he was born in 1952. In the mid-70s he was still in the Teen Titans, so that means was born in the late 1950s. In 1980 he was still in the Teen Titans, and was therefore born no earlier than 1961. So these can't all be the same Dick Grayson. We need an Earth-One-A, Earth-One-B, Earth-One-C, and so on. : Or we can simply agree that there are minor changes, inconsistencies, and (if you like) retcons throughout DC's history, without having to create a separate Earth for each miniscule change. : Besides, the Bronze Age DC used the term "Earth-Two" inconsistently. Around 1970, the E2 Superman who showed up in the JLA/JSA crossovers had the same powers as the E1 Superman. In the late 1970s All-Star Comics, E2 Superman was unable to fly. So if we accept that Action 1-15 is a different earth than Action 47, it follows that the JLA circa 1970 teamed up with a different Superman than they teamed up with in the late 1970s. But then how did the E2 Superman during Crisis remember both of these adventures? 20:38, September 13, 2017 (UTC) ::How would a Wonder Woman who we said is not of Earth-One remember events that happened to her-Earth-One counterpart? The DC multiverse had close parallel where things were similar but not necessarily identical (Earth-One vs Earth-Thirty-Two case in point) Agree, applying "Earth-Two-A" to POST-Action#15 Superman stories, let alone the whole rest of the DCU, is backward and wrong. If that's the status quo, I'm against it. If it's a new proposal, I'm still against it. Disagree, the whole thing is not unnecessary. Your examples are valid ones, but the weirdly slow aging of all characters is so universal that it is generally just ruefully accepted as one of the weird conventions of the medium. Bridwell's rule addresses a specific problem, in the content of the stories, affecting a relatively small number of stories. Pragmatically, IF there is to be a thing called Earth-Two-A, a new thing, not widely accepted, but a useful thing all the same ... IF there is to be this new designation, applied to a set of published stories, THEN it sensibly should should be applied to the smaller number of stories. (Action#1~15 plus some Detective#s plus whatever I'm forgetting) equals (the smaller # of stories). Opportunistically, having an Earth-Two-A provides a handy mechanism for explaining away, for example, those inconsistencies in Superman.E.2's power levels. The Fox JLA version of the JSA would have come from Earth-Two, same as always, but the Conway JLA version of the JSA would have come from Earth-Two-A. Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 00:54, September 14, 2017 (UTC) Let's keep this on the Talk: Earth-Two-A talk page so we have a single place to argue this. The Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Index specified what "Alternate Earth-2" (aka Earth-Two-A) dealt with. As far as expanding it beyond that point we have Super Friends where we dump a lot of material into Earth-Thirty-Two...regardless of how well it fits (it doesn't but things are such a mess with the cartoon that is no hope of cleaning it up...unless we invoke hypertime and there are strong indications that Earth-Thirty-Two is a hypertime reality.)--BruceGrubb (talk) 02:45, September 14, 2017 (UTC)